Nylander Not A Done Deal, Rangers could target BOTH Drury and Gomez

Larry Brooks of the New York Post is reporting that the Rangers have not had serious negotiations with Michael Nylander, and his new agent Mike Gillis, and that the Swedish center appears poised to hit the free agent pool on July 1st.http://www.nypost.com/seven/

The Rangers are expected to target both free agent centers Chris Drury and Scott Gomez if they are unable to reach an agreement with Nylander. While both men are considered 2 of the top 3 “elite” free agents along with Daniel Briere, both have expressed serious interest in playing with the Rangers and Glen Sather will try to convince both of them to take less money than they would get on the open market to join forces with New York and take a run at the Stanley Cup with Jaromir Jagr and Henrik Lundqvist.

This report negates a previous report out of Sweden that the Rangers and Nylander had agreed on a 3-year deal.

Brooks also reports that the Rangers may have interest in recently un-qualified Michel Ouelett, formerly of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

41 Responses to Nylander Not A Done Deal, Rangers could target BOTH Drury and Gomez

OK, so this is like a leaf's fan, players will take a big pay cut to play with them. I don't think so. The top three free agants are at the peak of thier careers and is thier biggest chance to make the money. There are to many teams wanting to sign these players. I think it is almost a guarantee that Drury will sign with a team in California. I am not saying that they are not going to sign one, but they are not going to sign 2 of them.

Im not quite sure why Nylander is playing hardball with the Rangers. We're not GM's and we realize that Nylander's abilitys will greatly diminish if Jagr isn't taking up the space and defensive attention away from his, often times, annoying, shifty ability with the puck, especially at the blueline. Statistics say it all. When he plays with Jagr, he's a very good player. When he doesn't he is an average centermen, but a detriment defensively. If he's trying to wrangle more money from the Rangers it may work, but were all hockey fans, and we recognize his weaknesses…The GM's have to see it too; but Im sure there is one sap that will give him his 5.5 mil for 4 years.

Honestly, Larry Brooks is a damn fool. And the NY Post is literally toliet paper; if it weren't for paper cuts, and possibly poison from ink, this paper would be located in the tissue aisle at all local supermarkets and stores.

I don't think he means a huge pay cut, but if they could get 8m somewhere else, maybe they take 6 each and go to the Rangers. I'm not sure how the cap is right now, but they're losing Rachunek and the money that is owed to Kaspariris and Ozolinsh will come off the cap as well.

I'm also hearing of Shanahan taking a bonus-laden contract and that bonuses don't count against the cap.

Remember, this is the Rangers, we've seen stranger things in the past.

I am a huge Rangers fan and see it as a long shot to get both Drury and Gomez aboard in NY. I do think that Nylander is trying to get way too much $$ from The Rangers. Any number of players can play with Jagr and score 80 points in a season. I can't tell you how many times Jagr is double-teamed on the ice only to leave Nylander all alone. He can probably get $5M a year from a team that would be really desperate for a center (Philly, Toronto).

I do see Drury on The Rangers next season but then they will have the same problem they had this season…..finding a 2nd line center to play with Shanny and Avery. I don't know if anyone has noticed but Jozef Stumpel, Mike Comrie and Bryan Smolinski will all be free agents come Sunday. All 3 are capable 2nd line centermen, can play 20 min a game and would be a much cheaper allternative to Gomez. They would also allow the Rangers to spend a little more on another Defensemen.

If the cap is at $50.9M, the Rangers have $11.141M to play with, and remember that teams can be 10% over cap during the offseason, so temporarily, they could have $5.09M more, making it $16.231M. They could conceivably make both moves at 7.5-8 M each, and then make necessary cuts to get back under the cap (like releasing Malik lol)

All other RFA/UFA would be let go.

Again, I'm not a cap-ologist or anything, but I think I'm pretty close here. Thoughts?

That looks right to me. Although Avery, Shanny, Prucha and Hossa are not signed yet. Rachunek has already been releaased and there is no guarentee that Lundqvist will be signed to that either. The Rangers may take him to arbitration to sort that out.

Put Hossa and Jagr on the top line with whatever top center they sign be it Nylander Gomez or Drury, then have Straka center the 2nd line with Shanny and Avery (assuming, and it is almost definite that both will be with the Rangers next year).

Straka was having a career year before he went down with a knee injury and wasnt the same when he came back including the playoffs. That and Shanny's concussion, and even Avery was injured in the Sabre series, rendered the 2nd line much less effective than it would have been. They should all be back to 100% when the season starts and be a very productive line.

Third line will be Prucha Cullen and Callahan

4th Line will be Betts and a mix of Dubinsky/Dawes and Orr/Hollweg. I wish we could fit Ortie here but there just seems to be no room.

If we sign 2 centers that takes away productive (and inexpensive) young role player and i dont think the Rangers need to do that.

I honestly think Hossa should go. The guy is terrible. Why everyone thinks he is talented is beyond me. The guy consistenly misses the net. He doesn't use his size to his advantage. And is a below average skater.

i see we are pretty much in agreement….(see above). The rangers are also pretty far under the cap where we can sign someone and front load the contract. Would also like to see a better backup goalie so Hank wont have to play 70 games. Dont know who is available. Handzus is czech but also injury prone. My list would be

i see we are pretty much in agreement….(see above). The rangers are also pretty far under the cap where we can sign someone and front load the contract. Would also like to see a better backup goalie so Hank wont have to play 70 games. Dont know who is available. Handzus is czech but also injury prone. My list would be

He's not all that bad… I mean it seem if he is paired with talented players he is able to perform well… being on the fourth line with Betts and Hollweg doesn't let him shine, he rots there and is useless. I think he definitly has potential if given the right opportunity. If he proves a dud, so be it, package him in a trade, i'm sure some team will have a use for him.

He only had 10 goals last season…granted most of his games were played on the fourth line. But I still think that we have better options that Hossa. How about letting go of Hossa…Letting Straka play the LW with Jagr and whoever they sign (Nylander, Drury, Gomez) and giving more ice time to Callahan or even giving Dawes or Dubinsky a real shot at making the team.

This is a bit off topic, but does anyone else think that Pock is underrated? I mean he's been consistent every time he gets called up to the roster and he seems capable up putting up points. He seems like a good young defensemen that in my opinion deserves a permanent roster spot… but that's a tough choice with Staal in the system. I would say rotate the two in the third pairing, let them both show what they can do and give one a permanent spot.

Although I would like to see Hossa get a longer chance to play with the big boys (Jagr's line), I do agree that he is expendable and there are better options. I would love to see the ice time and roster spot go to one of the up and comers, and I believe that man should be Dawes.

There is no doubt that in the long run Staal will get the permanent spot before Pock does. I do think that Pock is a pretty good talent on the ice and would make a good 3-4 d-man. He can skate well and moves the puck good. Seeing him and Tyutin play together would be nice. i do think that Pock is as good as Mara but Mara has the bigger contract and has to play. Its not a downgrade having Mara out there but obviously the cheaper option would be Pock. I think this will be Malik's last season on the Rangers so the following season could hold a spot for Pock if he shows he can be a consistent contributer.

Hossa played really well with Nylander and Jagr…worked the boards, cycled well, and chipped in with a bunch of goals in and around the net. I bet he could score 25-30 goals this year if given the chance on the 1st line.

Pock is a dependable player when given consistent ice time. Anytime there was an injury to a top 6 defenseman, he would come up and look awful for the first couple of games. After a couple of more games he looked like he belongs and even begin to contribute scoring wise. Then the top 6 guy would come back from injury and Pock was back on the bench.

Pock is servicable, but I don't think he's quite there yet. That said, I think there's a very good chance he'll be in the top 6 next year. He really needs to be given a decent amount of power play time, if he's really going to make it to the next level, but he's got to earn that time. Right now, he's a 3rd pairing defenseman.

Performance bonuses can be earned at two levels. The first level covers individual benchmarks such as goals scored, goaltender wins, and so on. The maximum a player can earn at this level is believed to be around $850,000 per year. The second level is for much rarer achievements, like winning a major NHL award or ranking among the NHL's top players in a statistical catregory. The maximum a player can earn at this level is estimated at $2 million per year. Performance bonuses under the old agreement were subject to few limits.

With some exceptions, performance bonuses are paid by the league and do not count against a team's salary cap. But they do count in calculating the league-wide share of player revenue.

Maybe you were thinking of signing bonuses. I'm talking about performance bonuses…

Brooks cracks me up. I love it. This sounds a lot like one of Uncle Larry's trade and free agent "suggestions."

Anyone with an iota of common sense knows that no team is going to pay Nylander more than what the Rangers will give to him. He plays with Jaromir Jagr. And you know that he knows, that its in his best interest to stay with the Rangers.

Every GM in the league knows that while Nylander is a good offensive center, Jagr makes him look awfully good and opens up a lot of ice for him. Jagr made him look better in Washington, and makes him look better in New York. I would be absolutely stunned if Nylander did not resign with New York.

That leaves targeting Drury, which I think the Rangers should do, regardless of what impact it has in the locker room. I'm not too huge on Gomez. The last time the team signed a Devils free agent center, it didn't work out too well.

Henrik played about 65-70 this year. I dont like Valiquette either but Montoya would be best suited as the Hartford starter, NHL callup. I think he is ready for 20 games easily, but with Valiquette there, unless they get Yann Denis or sign one cheaply leave it alone.

I think Drury would compromise Jags leadership so im skeptical.

And a PP defenseman? It wouldn't work. Jagr needs the puck on the PP despite how most of us hate that. Rozival is fine, and I really would like Tyutin on the point as he has a solid shot. Mara and Pock also fit the bill